Improvement in pencil-holders



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

THOMAS ORTON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PENCIL-HOLDERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 132,174, dated October 15, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS ORTON, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain Improvements in Pencil-Holders, of which the following is a specification Nature of the Invention.

This invention relates to a device for holding short pieces of lead-pencil, so that they may be used entirely up; and the invention consists of a metal tube mounted upon a wooden shaft or holder, and fitted with a sharp-cut internal screw-thread, into which the lead-penseveral figures denote the same part.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceedto describe the same with particularity, making use in so doing of the aforesaid drawing by letters of reference marked thereon.

General Description.

A is a wooden shaft, similar in all respects to a common pen-holder shaft or stick. B is a short metal tube, into which the shaft A is inserted, as shown. This tube is cut internally with a sharp thread, which may extend entirely through from one end to the other, in which case the shaft is inserted by screwing it in 5 or the said thread may be out only partially through, in which case the said shaft may be driven tightly into the uncut end, as shown in the drawing. The open end of this tube, which is to receive the pencil, is made upon a gentle taper, the size of the aperture gradually decreasing as it proceeds, and the screw-thread is cut in this tapering bore to receive the pencil. 0 represents a piece of leadpencil too short for use in writing. The buttend of the pencil is cut down with a pen-knife, as shown at b, to a gentle taper to correspond to the aperture, small enough to admit of being entered into the open end of the tube. A few turns of the pencil will serve to force it along the screwthread, which indents the wood and secures the pencil firmly against withdrawal or motion of any kind. It is very firmly heldby this simple device, and yet may be removed quite as readily as it is insertedby turning it again in the opposite direction. Thus'it cannot become wedged in, as is likely in ordinary pencil-holders.

In this device a piece of pencil may be used until it is less than half an inch in length, as the screw-thread need not occupy more than a quarter of an inch. A practical pencil-holder to consume bits of pencil has long been an unsatisfied want. The consumption of leadpencils by employs of the telegraph companies alone is immense, and as they cannot use more than two-thirds of the length of the pencil the waste is enormous. The essential qual ifications for a practical holder are that it sh all be cheap; that it shall hold the pencil firmly; that it shall require only a very small portion of the pencil to be inserted; that it shall offer a good grasp to the fingers in writing; and, finally, that the small bits of pencil when almost entirely consumed may be readily removed without danger of becoming wedged in.

All these advantages are evidently possessed by this invention, as clearly appears.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The device for holding short pieces of leadpencil, consisting of a metal tube with tapering aperture fitted upon a shaft of proper size for use in writing, and made with a sharp-cut internal screw-thread, substantially as specified.

, THOS. ORTON.

Witnesses:

HEINR. F. BRUNS, JOHN W. MUNDAY. 

